edu 745 strategy demonstration pannoni

Main Idea and DetailsIf students don’t understand the basics, they

can’t go further.Michael Pannoni - EDU 742

Teaching Details

Most teachers teach identifying Main Idea first? Why do most students have trouble figuring out Main Idea right after reading?

My philosophy: “students can’t tell me what the story is mainly about if they can’t point out the important details first” (Pannoni [2012] “Michael Pannoni’s Own Mouth” Online Submission [Now THERE’S an APA Reference]).

Teaching Details - Prior Knowledge

Before reading, ask the students what they already know using a prompt or organizer. Maybe even a video?

Here is a sample of an organizer I previously used to introduce the topic of immigration.

I used a SMART Board to present this. Technology is the best.

Teaching Details - Think Aloud Strategies

The next slide has a YouTube video on teaching Think Alouds.

Think Alouds teach students to not read blindly, and to think about that their thinking as they read (metacognition).

Teaching Details - During Reading

Students should be allowed to mark up the text.

Examples: Details that strike students as important, vocabulary words, questions.

The first passage should be short for modeling purposes.

Teaching Details - After Reading

Remember this? The graphic organizer? Pay attention to where the arrows are going.

I let my students fill this out in groups. I tell them not to touch the middle just yet.

Teaching Main IdeaOnce students are able to choose details, now ask them, “What is the Story About?” You’ll find a long run-on sentence usually follows.

Example: “The story is about a boy and he plays soccer and he’s from Ghana and he gets offered money to play soccer but his mother yells at him...”

This is the perfect time to explain the “short and sweet” strategy. “The story is mainly about a soccer player who comes to the US for an education.”

Questions?

Feel free to ask.

mpannoni@waterbury.k12.ct.us.

Works Cited(Hanging Indents hard in Power Point)

Daniels, H., & Zemelman, S. (2004). Subjects matter: every teacher's guide to content-area reading. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Scholastic. (2005). Read 180 Stage B: Teachers Manual. New York, NY: Scholastic.

Balanced Literacy Diet (2011).Think Alouds: Modeling Ways to Think About Text (Virtual Tour). From http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0ZHimY5YZo